And a birthday in two parts

At the MACHmit Museum

T2 had her birthday celebration broken by the holidays, T1's birthday, and some other excursions, but we finally got it all done!

First, she had her birthday in class. For once, I didn't stay to take photos and these are from her Erzieherin. I like the "Birthday train" so much that last year I bought one myself. It only goes up to 9 (do you think there is an extension set?), so I guess that it is aimed at the Grundschule set. Afterwards, they play traditional German birthday games (which have the birthday child wearing a crown and acting as master of ceremonies: is this how the bossiness is inculcate?) and each other child personally congratulates the Geburtstagkind with a handshake and the ritual "Herzlichen Gluckwunsch". I brought in the standard cake, but I also brought in goody-bags, as we invited only the girls to the later, outside, party.



The second part of the party, held several weeks later, was at the Kindermuseum MACHmit! I had heard good things about the museum, and because of the weather and the number of children (even with just girls, it was larger than any party we have had) we decided we needed a program. The girls really enjoyed the climbing area and the chocolate cake (for once not one I made myself), but the program was a little bit above their level— more for the 8 year old and her friend then a group of 5-6 year olds. I'm disappointed that one of the guides was not able to understand that giving a note to a non-reading child is a bit inutile. The other guide was great with kids, though.

We will visit the museum again, when we can be more free-form.

A Half Birthday

Explaining the Color Wheel

Painting

Because T1's birthday is in the summer holidays, she loses out on a birthday celebration with her friends. The German tradition prevents her celebrating it before the actual day (that's a huge no-no for Germans) while when school starts again we head directly into New Year's, Herbstferien, and other holidays.

The cake

This year, I brought a cake in for her school celebration in the fall, but we just couldn't manage to put together a real birthday celebration that didn't run across other holidays. Although I increasingly see the clever fashion of some parents giving birthday celebration invitations to the class during a holiday when everyone can be expected to either be a. out of town or b. unable to eat what is provided, that wasn't our goal, which was to allow T1 to enjoy her birthday party with her friends.

So we had a Winnie Pooh-style birthday (at the around half year mark). As usual, although I handed out invitations before the spring holidays with a 3 week RSVP request, gave my phone number and e-mail, and sent out a request by e-mail a week before (because the venue required booking), only 3/12 parents RSVPed and we needed to call everyone. Sigh.

I thought this was amazing: the
 (Russian) girl who did this was
very reluctant to share the (simple)
techique with the other girls.

We went to Paint Your Style and the kids had a great time. The girls are all in the stereotypical horse-loving stage and all chose horse figurines to paint, while the boys took Fussball piggybanks. Who needs to impose gender roles when they do so themselves?

Pizza and Cake

After, we walked them across the street to a pizza parlor we had booked a table out, ordered pizza, used the place mats and goody bags I brought back from the States (Cars theme for the boys, Fairies for the girls) and enjoyed the cake I had brought. 

I think we all had a good time and after all the children were picked up, T1's best friend and her dad joined us for an ice cream at a local Eisladen to cap off the day.

Happy Birthday!

It's been a busy week and it's going into a busy week. The middle of this two week period was T2's birthday party. We had a party for her and her friends (and T1 got to bring a friend along) on the weekend.
They seemed to all enjoy themselves.
We aren't quite certain why Germans will not RSVP, no matter how one asks, but at this point we are used to calling to confirm attendance (important because we also saw a puppet show Rumpselstiltskin and therefore it was necessary to be timely and for us to have a headcount). I made my standard chocolate cake with the requisite pink frosting and purple and white sparkling sugar.

That was followed with Monday's cake for her class and the cake for the last day of my class this semester. I actually ran out of butter for my third cake this week and had to use sprinkled powdered sugar and sparkling sugar for a frosting for T2 and make a French Yogurt Cake (with rose water) for my cake (as it used olive oil rather than butter). I was very glad to reach the end of the baking until next month!

The rest of the week will be practice Seders and buttoning up next month's newsletter.

(Darn- I am wrong. T2 is Shabbat Mama on Friday, so I'll be baking again, I think. Unless I wimp out with something purchased.)